Bowl with Poppies, Tree Peony, and Flowering Mimosa (1723–35): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Poppies, Tree Peony, and Flowering Mimosa (1723–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Developments in enamel technology led to new possibilities in polychrome decoration. Pinks appeared, lending their name to the new palette of overglaze colors (famille rose), and the addition of opaque white allowed painters to vary the value of pigments, enhancing the painterly quality of porcelain decoration. As on painted scrolls and album leaves, the image is accompanied with a poem, in this case: "Branches come alive in the moonlight; Blossoms fill the autumn realms."

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Poppies, Tree Peony, and Flowering Mimosa
• Date: 1723–35
• Culture: China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Yongzheng mark and reign (1723-1735)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter: 14.1 cm (5 9/16 in.); Overall: 6.6 cm (2 5/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Qing Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.201

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Oriental Ceramic Society. Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty (1644-1912): Catalogue of an Exhibition. London: The Society, 1951.
• Sotheby's, London. Fine "Famille-Rose" Porcelain in Chinese Taste. July 9, 1958 sale. Lot no. 123
• Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.